Welcome to The Coffee House! We hope you enjoy this place; however, we appreciate that you may have a few questions about who we are and what we do. So, we've put this page together, with the aim of introducing ourselves and answering answering your initial questions about our community.

What The Coffee House is

The first question you'll have about TCH is: what exactly is it? Obviously, it's a discussion forum - but, what kind of discussion forum?

• A place to get to know different people. No matter where you're from, or what your background is, we hope you will be able come here, and find a welcoming environment where you can be open about who you are. We want all of our members to get to know and understand each other, and to feel comfortable doing so!
  
  
• A venue for civil and respectful discussion. As we said, we welcome people from a wide range of different backgrounds - and, inevitably, some of those members will want to discuss those differences. And that's great - provided that all members involved remain civil and respectful towards one another.
  
  
• An opportunity to engage in passions and learn new things. We have topics about a board spectrum of subjects - from science and technology to history and current events. Or, if you're more interested in something a bit lighter, we also have sections dedicated to sports, gaming, and popular culture. Whatever you're interested in, we want you to come here to learn more about it - and teach us more about it!
  
  
• A place to have fun. We can't spend all of our time engaged in heavy discussion: sometimes, we just want to relax and unwind! Therefore, we have sections dedicated to games, role-playing, quizzes, and other fun activities. There are even contests where you can compete against your fellow members for prizes and awards!
  

What The Coffee House is not

We try our best to cater to a large, broad audience - but nevertheless, we understand that it is impossible to please absolutely everybody. We want you to be clear on where we stand - and thus, as well as talking about what TCH is, we need to spend a bit of time talking about what it isn't:

• An unmoderated free-for-all. While we permit our members to express a wide range of opinions on a broad variety of topics, we do expect them to remain considerate and respectful of one another. The only way to have an unmoderated free-for-all would be to allow members to be disrespectful towards one another - which would go against our primary goals, and recreate the "hornet's nest" atmosphere that is all too common on social media (and is exactly what we're trying to get away from).
  
  
• An X-rated adult site. While many of our members are adults, we are open to members aged 13 and up. Therefore, we request that all content posted on this site is suitable for this audience (i.e. roughly what would be found in a typical PG-13 movie).
  
  
• An exclusive club or clique. While we do have our unique customs and in-jokes (as any sufficiently well-established community does), we also strive not to leave anybody locked out of the loop. We want to create an environment that's welcoming to newcomers like yourself!
  

In the words of our members

But don't just take it from us! We've also got the following piece from long-time member Moonshroom, about what The Coffee House means to him:

MoonshroomYour curiosity is our joy. Maybe you are curious about how things are like in the UK but don't know where to post such questions? Fear not, for our UK-based members have a topic specifically to be asked about their country's culture, ways and history. The Scot, Americans and Australians do as well. And if you wanna go a little bit deeper, there are such topics for Oklahoma and Argentina as well. It is really quite a deep wealth of information to be had and learned from.

But countries, regions and states aside, your intellectual curiosity can also be satisfied here. There is a downright masterful topic about linguistics in here, and there are many excellent ones about math, nature and history as well. We even have a board where we experiment and try the boundaries of alternative history.

Understanding that all of the above is not necessarily for everyone, we also make sure to acknowledge the screen from which you read us. So, what do you use it for? Do you watch awesome Netflix shows or hilarious YT videos on yours? Wanna share a hidden gem that you have just recently found out about or sigh angrily at a bomb you had such high hopes for? We have got you covered through a variety of already-existing topics and encourage you to start your own threads. Even if the shows were only available in your region or happen to be off the air for decades (*cough*), we still wanna hear about them!

Last --but definitely not least-- your creative expressions will always have a place here. Whether you like to write, draw, animate or photograph things, your work is something we wanna be delighted with and provide feedback for.

Is there anything else I should know?

If you'd like to know more about us as people, we'd suggest checking out our personal bios in the Staff Intro. Or, if you're interested in learning more about how the board works, those guides can be found at the top of the Announcements and Board Information.

But if what you've seen so far has enticed you to join us - then, the very next thing to do is to register an account by clicking the link below!